Beneath the Ash
by TurtleFriedRice
Summary: In their life it was sin, but in death they were free to love eternally.
1. Chapter 1

There was ash over practically every inch of his body, but Zoro didn't care. He'd gone away from the fleet and back into the city because he didn't care about evacuation when not one of the faces in the crowd was _him_. It was unbearably hot and this disaster was the worst they'd ever had, far worse than any earthquake or wrath from the gods he could recount.

Still, after assisting a woman and her child for a moment and spinning back on his heel, he turned back towards the source of the black smoke, scowling with what anger he could muster at the cursed mountain. It wasn't going to stop. He knew enough to not even dream it might. This was the end, the gods would not be saving them. The least he could do was find Sanji.

There was only one place the freed man could be – knowing the society they both lived in, he should have known already he wouldn't have been allowed to flee first in any evacuation – which was the place in which he worked day in and day out. Zoro could only pray from somewhere within himself that it still stood, as several buildings reaching into the hundreds with age and strength were crumbling like nothing, just the echo of their demise and the cries of those unlucky to be caught inside it left.

Sanji's bakery was located next to the grand market. Everything was so dark from the ash overcast and by now there was no one in sight, it was like a ghost town. Still, he recognized the painted sign outside the store and ran towards it like his life depended on it and in many ways he felt like it did. All he could do was curse under his breath and hope honestly it would be empty and the blond he knew so well had left to seek help.

The building creaked and the swordsman slammed the door open, his eyes desperately spreading from one end of the room to the other and stopping right on the figure of a man huddled to the side. Sanji. He was tucked in to himself, his arms clung around his knees that were already covered in ash.

The cook's face was dirty too, but he looked up at him with wide and conscious eyes. They were shocked, since he obviously wasn't expecting to see Zoro burst in there and find him, but also angry and sad at the very fact the soldier had come back to find him in this mess. Before he could even think, he was up on his feet, which were bare and burning against the hot ash on the floor and approached the other. He paused a moment, taking in the soldier's face, then shoved him back.

"You idiot, you fucking idiot! What are you doing here? Get out of the city!" he yelled, continuing to try and force the other outside of the door, but to no avail.

"The fuck, no I'm not leaving without you. What are _you_ doing here? Why haven't you evacuated?" Zoro growled back, his hand reaching out to attempt to brush some ash away from Sanji's face, only for his hand to be smacked away.

The blond opened his mouth to retort, but a rumble traveled through the ground and his body moved forward on its own, instinctively grabbing on to his forbidden lover. To him, Zoro should've known well enough why he couldn't leave. Ever since he'd became a free man, his bakery was all that Sanji had in this world, it was his dream and all that he had worked for.

"This is just another storm, it'll pass. This is my store so I have to stay with it." He pressed his lips tightly together, pushing himself away once more in resistance from the way Zoro tried to wrap his arms around him and gazed up at the soldier's face that was watching him silently, desperately wanting to understand. "You shouldn't be here. Where is your wife? You bastard, you should be protecting her!"

Zoro ground his teeth. In their last moments, this was not the conversation he wanted to have, he didn't want to be reminded about the person he was forced to marry, he wanted to be with Sanji. There was a part of him that wanted to forcefully take the cook and make a run for it, hoping for the best that they could reach it to the sea and maybe by then, just maybe the boats would finally be in the clear to leave and lead them to safety. But he knew better than that.

This was everything to Sanji, it was all he could keep for himself. He'd heard time and time again the sufferings of his lover and the way his life had only just become his own and even then he couldn't have all the things he wanted – with great emphasis on what Sanji couldn't have in connection with Zoro, enough to make him infuriatingly angry at fate time and time again. He wouldn't take this from his blond or let this disaster do so. And the Marimo wouldn't let it take Sanji away from him, either.

He opted not to reply to his lover, only grabbing his hand roughly and dragging him back to the corner in haste, where he assumed it was a better place to stand away from the door and the windows. Then, gently, Zoro guided him to rest against the wall so that he could really give him a look over.

"What happened to your shoes?" he whispered hoarsely, squeezing his hand on the blond's shoulder.

Another tremor of the earth and they were closer once more, crouching down to the floor. Sanji curled in to him, an arm clinging loosely off from Zoro's frame and his armor.

"I gave them to a woman, she needed them more… but bastard, why did you come back for me?"

"Dammit cook, this isn't the time for chivalry! Think of yourself for once!" The words were scolding, but drenched in concern. Slowly, he lifted up his breast plate, moving it over protectively to cover the blond's thin tunic. Sanji resisted at first, but melted under the soldier's stern expression he'd given into many, many times before. "I'm a soldier, but I'll protect _my_ people."

There was something bittersweet about being called one of Zoro's 'people' in such a situation. He'd only ever crush the dreams he'd had before where Zoro would refer to him out loud so fondly. Leave it to the Marimo to finally get around to it only when everyone else had fled from sight. Perhaps that was the point?

"You're over reacting. This will be over soon; you don't have to stay here. What if they found you here with me?" Sanji muttered under his breath.

Zoro sighed deeply, squinting his eyes in the dark to really find Sanji's face. Without thinking really, his hand moved and he caressed the blond's cheek, smudging the dirt off it that had been irritating him. Sanji should never appear filthy, far from it.

"This won't get better, Cook. The smoke keeps getting thicker and the boats can't leave the harbor."

"I'm surprised you even found the bay," Sanji snorted. "Who knew when the world was ending, you'd come find me?"

"You know damn well I always find you."

The structure began to shake, rubble piling up on the roof and testing its strength. Zoro hovered over Sanji quick, shielding the other with his body, gazing down at him with a hint of fear. He was a powerful warrior whose title of 'demon' proceeded him – and Sanji knew the end was really near if even Zoro, someone he knew to never break his composure, showed fear.

Sanji bit into his bottom lip. It was the end of the freaking world, the last he'd ever see of anything or of Zoro and yet he couldn't help but be weighed down by guilt. Why had he let Zoro hold himself back for him? Why had he over stepped over his boundaries? Zoro's love should be in safety with his wife, his family, not here inside a crumbling city.

"This is my fault. Why did you have to come back? I'm the sinner, this is my hell, you don't deserve to be here."

Zoro let out a sarcastic snort, literally thinking 'as if' when he reached down and took one of Sanji's hands and squeezed it, prompting the cook to look back up at his face. It made him nervous how cold and shaking the blond was, regardless of the rising temperatures around them.

"We're both sinners, idiot. Don't take all the credit."

No matter how many times he hinted at being there willingly, Sanji couldn't bring himself to accept it, though something inside him really hoped it was true. He gazed up at Zoro's face, exhausted. The cook felt like he could barely move as it was, the amount of hot ash sticking around him. It'd only get worse, wouldn't it? He'd only have a little longer to say anything, but he wanted it to count.

Of course the right thing to do would be to tell the bastard he actually loved him, but a part of Sanji that was still faithful – believing in their gods - that if he didn't say it, if he didn't bring Zoro's sin to light, the swordsman could flourish and not burn in eternal hell alongside him. No, instead, Sanji did the next best thing and he reached up and pulled Zoro down the rest of the way, taking the soldier's lips into his.

It could be seen as almost a greeting, but both of them knew it was something much more. When he pulled, away they still held each other, their foreheads pressed together and noses almost touching. Both had to close their eyes, the wind and smog picking up and becoming unbearable. There were times he thought Zoro tried to speak, but it was only the sounds of the city collapsing even still around them, or perhaps just his imagination. Finally though, Sanji said what he needed, feeling the biggest wave from the quakes so far.

"Thank you," he whispered out to the soldier, watching his eyes open, hearing a little of what he could say.

Sanji's thanks were more than just for giving him his love. It was about Zoro coming to find him, so he wouldn't have to be alone. It was to thank the swordsman for being willing to burn in hell with him, for loving him. And in more ways than one, freeing Sanji and supporting his dream enough to die here in the place he worked hard for.

There was a lot more the cook wanted to say of course, like his beloved's name, but he would never get the opportunity. There was a deafening sound and the last thing he felt was Zoro pushing him down while everything grew hot and finally craved in. Then, there was nothing.

"These are the 'forbidden lovers'," Mrs. Nico explained, a smile on her face as she sat up on the small ledge in front of the glass and folded her legs to the side elegantly. "They are two men who were found incased in ash from the Pompeii disaster. The reason why they are called forbidden lovers is not because of how they were found and their genders, it was actually quite common that men had a male lover in this age, but because of their status."

She turned towards the glass, taking a deep breath as her eyes trailed down the near statue behind it. It was just like the scene so many years ago, only encased in thick ash and immortalized. There was something sad to know this was a way someone had died and Robin never forgot that in her work, but she took pride in the fact that their sufferings weren't for nothing and contributed greatly to her goal of understanding the past.

But her eyes were still sad. Perhaps she was really a hopeless romantic, but she seemed to connect with this artifact more than anything else. She knew neither of these men, but at the same time she felt she did and understood what their life must have been like. The archeologist tapped on the glass lightly in gesture to the larger male on top, covering over the other, his muscles defined in the near stone.

"It's believed that this one, Asura as we've named him, was an elite soldier. He's missing his chest armor because he sacrificed it and placed it onto his freed man, Prince." She guided her finger to the other one. "He wasn't really a Prince, but from the way Asura's body is posed and how he protected him wholeheartedly, I believed to him he was worthy of royalty and praise, so we gave him that name. We can tell his status was higher than a slave but lower than a free born man from his clothing."

Asura and his Prince. A fitting name, she was quite proud of it. She only hoped it did the true story some justice. Sadly, she pulled her face away from the display and at the college students peering at her. Most of them were bored out of their minds – they didn't care what discovery she had made or how many degrees and awards she had that she was trying, as their professor, to give them insight to.

They just wanted an easy grade, standing around and looking at all of the old stuff, as some would put it. Did they even understand that these were real people? They had lives and love and it was all taken from them in the course of maybe only 24 hours? How if history told them one thing, it was that it liked to repeat itself, what if they too ended up in this type of situation? Would it be just an easy grade then? Still, she couldn't get angry at all of them. Two of the students, not ones she thought would actually be listening, were hanging on to each of her words.

"Asura and Prince died around midnight after the eruption. They probably couldn't even tell it was that late, considering how dark the volcanos plume had become and where it had spread. But they, like many of the thousands of other Pompeii and Herculaneum died when a pyroclastic flow escaped the volcano and engulfed everything, bringing temperatures of nearly 300 Celsius and killing them all instantly."

Her eyes gazed downward. "By morning, they were under an estimated 20 metres of just volcanic materials alone, leaving our two lovers to remain hidden alone under the rubble for so long before being found. Pompeii and Herculaneum were cleared right off the map. We were lucky to find anything at all."

She sighed, standing up from her seat. "But that's enough of that. I know the real reason why you came. To the dinosaur exhibit, right? Alright, we can go, I shall show you my favorite. I call him Franky." Then she, along with majority of the class, began to move down the hall.

One of the students, though, that she'd mentioned earlier, whose eyes were larger than they should've been and he seemed to be missing several major organs in his chest, filling it with nothing but anxiety, took a step closer to the glass after most of the class cleared out and peered in at the two enclosed men. He ignored his own reflection against the glass, mostly the green from his hair, and fought the weirdest urge to get emotional as his mind finally became clear.

So this was what had happened to _them_.

Clenching his jaw tight and making sense of the story he'd just been told, the clarity he'd just been shown, he turned slowly back, catching a glance at the other student just as shocked. He was tall, a skinny thing with a sailor's mouth and had his arms around two of the girls in their class who were oblivious to the way his blue eyes had widened and he had frozen, only complaining and asking why they weren't going, they wanted to see the dinosaurs too.

The blond's eyes traveled away from the unique sight and on to his male class mate's face, to stare into the dark eyes there. They'd maybe spoken to each other a handful of times in their whole lives – through middle school, high school and college – and yet here they were, having a silent conversation of understanding, among many questions of confusion.

Sanji swallowed thickly, tightening his hold around the two ladie's waists and guided them to turn silently and he began to slowly walk off. Zoro stepped back from the glass, a few paces after him, but stopped. The cook could walk away now and play like he didn't just remember everything that had happened, but the soldier knew the truth. He knew he had the same moment of recollection as he had. They'd talk about it soon enough, whether Sanji liked it or not.

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**Author's Note: XD Dont ask! I know its cheesy and dumb and stuff but Pompeii was one of the most interesting stories I learned about when I was a kid and i keep hearing the song by Bastille everywhere so I got inspired to zosan it, kind of. Not the movie that just came out thats apparently shitty. But yeah. Thank you soo much to the lovely MyLadyDay for the beta!  
**  
Oh also just want to say I tried doing lots of research and watching documentaries and get into it so things would be kind of accurate but I'm sure theres still alot off that isnt. Sorry QuQ ****


	2. Chapter 2

Zoro wasn't sure how late it was, he just continued to stare forward at the exhibit in front of him. He could have taken out his cellphone and checked the time, but to be honest at the moment he hated the contraption. His mind was still fresh and soaked with the memories of the life he lived nearly two thousand years ago. His body still hadn't stopped shaking.

Even equipped with new memories that somehow made sense to him from this new day and age, Zoro felt empty and foreign - plucked from his time period and dropped somewhere else where he was completely lost and expected to live. But he had died. Zoro had died and he'd never realized it. His entire first life, the original life he'd lived, had become nothing more than a memory . Every adventurous risk, every thought he'd had or action he'd taken or even the love he held had been kept so many lifetimes away and out of his reach all this time. Instead, he was left to roam this earth until now, building a life he wasn't sure he agreed with, but had unwillingly been granted.

And to top it all off, if his own life wasn't already a shattered mess he couldn't even begin to gather pieces of, he'd forgotten something else that made him feel lower than scum. The one thing that made the possibility of any sort of life in whatever situation had slipped through his fingera as well. Sanji had died and he'd never realized it. Hell, in this new body, this new world, it was never given a thought who he was or the relationship they'd had.

Damn, his heart ached like the hand of a god had reached into his chest to squeeze it themselves. Sanji. Even knowing he was also here, reborn in the new age just as he was, it didn't soothe the guilt Zoro was carrying on his shoulders nor calm his anxieties. He should've known, back then, to be able to have been stronger and saved him to spare him this kind of life as well. It shouldn't have had to be like this, at least for him, there could have been another way, but instead he was forced into this joke of a second chance beside him.

Were these thoughts that continued to prod at Zoro's mind appearing to Sanji as well? Hell, who knew what was really happening here. The blond had decided to walk away from Zoro the moment of recollection so who knew if it wasn't even that big of a deal to him. Maybe he had been spared the memories and it was only the former soldier here who was lost. Part of Zoro told himself that would probably be for the better. Sanji, if he was able to, deserved a flourished life to follow whatever dreams he wanted. And certainly he wouldn't wish this mental identity crisis on him, or any of his enemies.

Or maybe that was just Zoro allowing himself, in his grief, to be cowardly. Truth was, when it came down to it, he didn't know how to approach Sanji. The last time he'd really spoken to him - as seen in the glass case for anyone to observe- had been in their last dying moments. Things were said but arguably there were dramatics, they were going to die, things could have been done simply for the heat of the moment, even if Zoro sincerely hoped they weren't. Given the chance after a catastrophe, who wouldn't want a fresh clean slate? Or would definitely not want to be associated with the other corpse hardened in ash with someone else.

Zoro was so distracted in his thoughts, his eyes pinned to the small openings in the morbid statue where Sanji's former face, encased poorly - in his opinion, knowing how heavenly the blond had really looked - that he didn't pick up on the sound of footsteps in the empty halls. No, he was too busy inside his head thinking of a time that had already passed and how if he'd only known, the things he would have done better. In fact, it was only when the second intruder onto this historical exhibit, since of course it wasn't exactly a 24 hour convenience store, reached the opening to the room and glanced around the many glassed artifacts from their previous world, that Zoro released he wasn't exactly alone.

The former soldier took a deep breath, readying and relaxing his body to try and not appear so tense before turning his solemn face towards the blond. In this life time, his eyes had already peered on Sanji several times and thought nothing of him. He had impressions that he was annoying and bothersome, nothing more than an oblivious ladies man. Zoro could only imagine, from the few memories they had together this time which mostly revolved around anger and irritation, the thoughts the baker had about him. Honestly, the way things seemed in the best way Zoro could piece them together on the spot, it was almost like in this life specifically they weren't supposed to be together or close at all.

Sanji seemed rather relaxed and unfazed if his expression was any indication, his hand slid lazily in the pocket of his pants. He visibly shifted the weight on his feet and began to approach the bench himself.

"Now what are the odds," Sanji paused only to shoot a glance at their former selves, then back at Zoro, purposely avoiding his eyes and instead scanning his body to cure his disbelief that they were out here instead of in there. "Even in reincarnation, your hair came out green?"

Zoro waited a moment, allowing Sanji to take the seat next to him in order to share the once in a lifetime view of their corpses, before letting out a huff in response. "You don't look half bad yourself."

Then came silence. What could have even been said in such a moment? Both of them just stared ahead at the frozen scene, both probably replaying their perspectives from their memories at that exact moment. Leaving them both understandably speechless.

Zoro swallowed hard, pulling his attention away to glance at his former love beside him, taking in his presence. Well, there wasn't any sort of awkward chatter he could use from his memories to make this situation any better, so he felt he might as well get to the point and just say something, anything. The longer they sat there in silence was another minute wasted they might never get back, wasn't it? Because if one lesson was certainly learned here, it had to be something like that.

"You actually came. Earlier, you seemed to want to get away as fast as you could," he paused, pursing his lips in concentration. "Thought for sure you'd ignore my message."

Sanji sighed, looking down at where his hands settled in his lap and slowly clenched into fists. "Just needed time to think. We can't all bounce back so quickly with these new memories, Marimo."

Marimo. His new modern nickname, or insult, that Sanji often referred to him as. It was interesting to hear in this situation, but only continued to remind Zoro that times had definitely changed. But at least he had the closure that Sanji said he'd spent time thinking about this mess from his perspective. It both worried and caught the former soldier's curiosity just to think of what answers he may or may not have reached. Surely, he knew as well there was no going back, there was only the option to embrace and deal with this future they'd been given. However, even in realizing the fact, Sanji could deny him here, wanting to pursue his clean slate, so Zoro was forcibly holding himself back.

Sanji was just as handsome as he remembered, wearing the same old expressions he used to. Just watching the blond from the corner of his eye and seeing the way his chest rose and fell as he breathed had Zoro dying to reach out and embrace the one he'd lost. But he resisted the best he could, he had to give Sanjj the freedom to choose. After all, their souls had never truly been able to be intertwined in ceremony to one another despite vocal promises. Other than a once obvious love, there was nothing holding Sanji to Zoro and the Marimo needed to respect that even if he hated it.

"I don't suppose we can just go back to being as we were and act like nothing changed, can we?"

Sanji let out a huff, getting out a cigarette from his pocket and a lighter - fully taking advantage of the fact they were the only ones here and rules could be broken freely. "If only it were really that easy."

Zoro's eyes watched and trailed the smoke until he glanced back at the glass. Yeah, that would be too easy, wouldn't it? If Fate gave you a second chance to live, would you really live it in the same exact way?

The blond leaned back on the bench, spreading his arm around the back and breaking in his smoke. "So, did you go and see where your wife was now?" He let his curious words linger, his eyes keeping far from the former soldier.

His wife? The hell if Zoro had even given her the slightest thought in the whole time he'd recalled his past life. She wasn't important to him, she came from a darker part of his life that constricted his freedom - and besides, it wasn't exactly her form that he'd died covering when the disaster had occurred. Although it should have been obvious, at least Zoro thought so, she hadn't held a candle to Sanji even after all this time and a new life.

Zoro furrowed his brows irritably just at having to imagine her face and remembering how much her existence had always made things more difficult than they had to be. "Why would she matter?" He turned his eyes back to Sanji, taking in the side of his face while he refused to meet his eyes.

"Tch." Sanji crossed his legs, glaring back at him, no doubt hating his attitude towards her even now. "She was your wife, bastard. There was a bit of an eternal commitment there, you owe it to her."

He owed her nothing. Till death do them part, yeah well, they both died and as far as he was concerned, she was nothing but a stain on his track record. He shrugged, not finding the energy after such a long time apart to argue about this already again, just like old times. "Why would she matter to me now? I told you once before and I'll say it again. You know damn well I always found you instead."

Sanji clenched down on his cigarette. "Took your damn time finding me this time," he muttered, averting his eyes down. There was something about using one of the last things they'd ever said to each other in their previous lives against him that made him rather quiet.

"Oi..." Zoro's face softened. He hadn't meant to use it in a way to upset the other, but it didn't matter, Sanji took his arm back and sat up.

"Listen, Marimo, I'm not going to stay here all night staring at our bodies, alright? If you have something you want to say, then say it." Swiftly, he pulled himself up and took a few steps towards the case, taking one last good look at it. They both knew this was a temporary exhibit, after all.

Zoro looked down at his knees and pulled himself up. Like he waited two thousand years and now had the opportunity to speak to Sanji again and would just let it slip through his fingers. He stared at the back of the blond's frame and carefully thought over his next few words until all he could think to say was something he needed to vocalize.

"I'm sorry."

Sanji's body tensed up and slowly he peered back at Zoro with a shocked expression; it clearly hadn't been what he was expecting to hear. And for some reason, even in the bad lighting, it was almost as if he slightly paled as well.

"...What?" His brow rose and he turned around to face him. Something just didn't make sense. "Why? There was a volcano, you idiot, there was nothing you could've done."

Zoro averted his eyes. "No, but we died. We didn't get to mourn or grieve about it, we just got tossed into these new lives..." He paused. He wasn't good with this type of apologetic cheesy shit, so it was hard for him to exactly piece his thoughts together. "I know you wouldn't have wanted it to end that way, our deaths and everything between us."

Sanji visibly clenched his jaw and shoved his hand into his pocket, keeping himself composed even when his expression showed he was obviously thinking. Then after a few moments where Zoro wasn't sure if he would just run out again or not, he sighed.

"Is this the part where you suggest second chances?" he asked, his voice softer than before.

Zoro looked at the case. "There's a lot more to the world than we last thought. It would be pointless to try and understand it alone."

The blond let out a dry laugh, wiping at his nose before looking back at the Marimo. "I'm finally in a world where I could have my own harem at my disposal and you would show up to steal me away. Asshole."

"Didn't take a volcano this time to make me realize." Zoro shrugged, figuring that was just enough logic. "So are you going to make me wait?"

He practically already knew the answer though, slowly raising his hand out as if to offer it to the blond he'd waited centuries to be reunited with. He watched as Sanji analyzed it, his face that had previously paled, now reddening.

"Who acts like that these days? I'm not just going to take your hand or something, shitty Marimo, I'd rather die."

That was definitely an attitude that wouldn't ever change and it wasn't a rejection either. It made Zoro grin as he took his arm back to his side.

"Suit yourself, but you should be glad we're all alone. I can't guarantee what I will or won't do in public." It was a heaven sent, at least, in this time there wouldn't ever be too much of a protest against them that they honestly couldn't handle.

The blond shifted his weight on his feet, contemplating it, before giving in and moving closer to Zoro. Not directly in front of him, he wavered off to the side, letting his body fall against him and his chin to rest at his shoulder. Zoro knew what he meant by it and he didn't have to say it out loud, but when he did, it still relieved him.

"I missed this."

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**Author's Note: I had such a strong urge to continue this on so I hope that you really enjoy it XD I may even write more to add in the future.**  
**Thank you Myladyday for betaing this for me**  
**and if you enjoy this AU as much as we do you should check out her new fic, "Through the Ash" which is set in the same universe. Its really good XD and we may make drabbles in this au together.**


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